This will be quite the summer of sport. The European Cup (men’s soccer) is being held in Germany in from the middle of June to the middle of July. About two weeks later the Olympics start in Paris. And of course the normal summer sports are also taking place: the Tour de France, Wimbledon and more.
Women’s basketball is big news in the US recently with Caitlin Clark, but it has also been big news in Belgium for the last few years. The Belgian Cats (the woman’s national basketball team) grabbed the bronze medal at the European Championships in 2021 and then won the European championships last year, beating favorite Spain.
In the last Olympics in Tokyo, the Cats lost out to Japan. This year they are also in the group with the US, Japan and Germany. But they will depend on two players who have also been making a name for themselves in the WNBA: Emma Meesseman and Julie Vanloo.
Emma was crowned WNBA champion with the Washington Mystics in 2019. Since 2022 she has played for Chicago Sky. Julia Vanloo, a 3-point specialist, has joined the Washington Mystics this year and has already made her mark.
In athletics, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has been making recent news in the 400 meter and 400 meter hurdles. She is the reigning Olympic champion in the hurdles. But she will have to deal with Femke Bol who has taken the spotlight more recently. Bol won the bronze medal in Tokyo to Machlaughlin’s gold. But in 2023 Bol has taken all of the indoor medals and records, leading up to an exciting showdown at the Olympics this summer.
In gymnastics, all eyes will of course continue to be on Simone Biles. But in Belgium,
everyone still knows Nina Derwael. She has taken gold medals (even from Simone Biles) on the beam and especially on the bars. She was world champion in 2018 and 2019 and took the first gold medal for Belgium in gymnastics in Tokyo. She even has a new element named after her.
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